YOU’RE INVITED!

Celebrating a New Academic Year & An Exciting New Chapter

Friday, August 21, 2026 | 11:30 a.m.
91快活林
1638 W. Howard St. | Chicago, IL 60626

91快活林 warmly invites friends, supporters, community leaders, educators, and partners to join us for a special Community Reception as we begin the new academic year and celebrate an exciting new chapter in the life of the College.

Come meet our new President, Dr. James Jones, connect with 91快活林 students, faculty, and staff, and hear about the vision taking shape for the future of 91快活林.

We will share exciting developments surrounding the strategic partnership between 91快活林 and TISA and the opportunities it creates to strengthen our academic programs, expand our community impact, and build upon 91快活林’s distinctive role as an accredited Muslim institution of higher education in Chicago.

Discover What’s Ahead at 91快活林

Learn more about the programs, partnerships, and initiatives growing across the College, including:

• Madrasa Pathways
• The Center for the Study of Islam (CSII)
• The Hassan Institute and its emerging educational initiatives
• New Islamic School Teaching & Administration Certificate Programs
• Expanding local and global partnerships
• New opportunities for students, scholars, educators, and community members

Stay for Jumu’ah

Following the reception, guests are warmly invited to join us for Jumu’ah prayer at 1:00 PM.

Khateeb: Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans
Jumu’ah: 1:00 PM
Location: 91快活林

As a new academic year begins, we are excited to bring our community together, to reconnect with longtime friends, welcome new ones, share what is taking shape at 91快活林, and invite you to be part of what comes next.

As part of this new chapter, 91快活林 is also pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. James E. Jones as Interim President.

Dr. Jones brings more than four decades of experience in higher education teaching, academic leadership, religious studies,organization development and community engagement. He is Professor Emeritus of World Religions and former Chair of both the Department of World Religions and the African Studies Program at Manhattanville University and one of the founders of the Islamic Seminary of America. His scholarship and professional work in the United States and abroad have focused on the sociocultural impact of prejudice and the intersections of race, gender, and religion.

Dr. Jones holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hartford International University for Religion and Peace with a focus on Christian-Muslim relations and a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School. He has served as a scholar, educator, institutional leader, and mentor, bringing extensive experience in interfaith engagement, religious studies, and higher education administration.

In his role as President, Dr. Jones will help guide 91快活林 during this transitional period of growth and collaboration, working alongside institutional leadership to advance academic excellence, strengthen operations, and support the shared mission of expanding meaningful educational opportunities for students.

鈥淚n today’s divisive and fractured world, it is now more important than ever that like-minded higher education institutions work together for the purpose of nurturing ethical and effective leadership. I am humbled and honored that 91快活林’s Board chose me to lead 91快活林 as it endeavors to strengthen Islamically rooted education in North America 鈥�- Dr. James Jones.

Together, 91快活林 and The Islamic Seminary of America look forward to building a future where faith, scholarship, and service come together to prepare thinkers, chaplains, Imams, scholars, and leaders to contribute to the betterment of the world.

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2026
Time: 1:00 – 5:30 pm (includes light reception)

Arrive 1:00 PM Chicago Theological Seminary
Free and ample parking in the back (South) lot of CTS. You may enter in building’s north or south doors

1:00 Orientation and Viewing of Models at Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS)
2:00-5:00pm Trolley visits to: KAM Isaiah Israel, Al-Sadiq Mosque, and St Benedict the African
5:00-5:30 Faith, Flavor & Friendship Reception at CTS

Stops
Al-Sadiq Mosque

Program

Inspired by听, our time together will begin with the viewing of the exhibit, followed by an overview of the installation. We will then engage in a brief orientation before embarking on our journey together. After the tour, we will debrief over some light refreshments during our Faith, Flavor, & Friendship reception.

We look forward to seeing you onboard! Hurry and reserve your seats as these tours sell out quickly!

Celebrate 250 years of the American experiment with a journey through the living history of faith in Chicago. Hop aboard our 5th Annual Chicago Interfaith Trolley Tour to explore the vibrant religious and cultural landscape of the city in and around Hyde Park.

With a special focus on architecture and history, participants will learn about the faith traditions rooted in each space, the stories embodied in their buildings, and the interfaith collaborations that strengthen our shared civic life. At a time when the nation reflects on 250 years, the Chicago Interfaith Trolley Tour highlights how local communities model coexistence, hospitality, and mutual understanding. Through storytelling, scholarship, and shared experience, this event offers a fun, educational, and welcoming way to encounter the spiritual expressions that shape Chicago, and America, today.

A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago fosters and deepens relations between Christians and Muslims and builds bridges of mutual understanding, respect and cooperation among people of all faiths. To learn more visit www.lstc.edu

The Hassan Institute for Interfaith Encounter at 91快活林 is commited to thoughtful, respectful, and socially impactful inter-religious engagement. It is inspired by a shared belief in the value of transformative, relational, and experiential learning. www.aicusa.edu

At Chicago Theological Seminary, our mission is to educate and inspire the next generation of religious leadership. As a historically Protestant and now multifaith seminary, we are commited to racial and social justice, to gender equality and to deep interreligious engagement. www.ctschicago.edu

Nora Zaki Mantas is the founder of MyMuslimChaplain.com, a consultation company for chaplaincy. She served as the chaplain at Dominican University in Chicago and as the Advisor for Muslim Student Life at Vassar and Bard Colleges in upstate New York. Nora has a Master of Divinity from the University of Chicago and Master of Arts in Islamic Studies from Bayan Islamic Graduate School. Nora taught Introduction to World Religions at Dominican University. Nora is fluent in Arabic and a beginner speaker of Turkish.

She is a mother of two young children and enjoys spending time outdoors, even in the cold Chicago winters.

is a Professor of Practice in Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Bloomington.

His research bridges Chinese history, Central Eurasian Studies, and Islamic studies, with a focus on the Hui Muslim communities of Yunnan Province. His work examines mosque architecture, the halal food industry, and the political economy of Muslim life in contemporary China.
Dr. Brose is also active in digital history, using GIS and network analysis to study data from Chinese historical sources such as gazetteers and tomb inscriptions.

His publications include:
鈥� 鈥溾�� (Review of Religion and Chinese Society)
鈥� 鈥溾�� (International Journal of Food Design)
鈥� 鈥溾�� (Asia Pacific: Perspectives)

He has also written on Mongol and Ming history and on the combining quantitative and historical methods to study social networks across Eurasia.

Nader Hashemi is the Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an Associate Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

He obtained his doctorate from the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the UCLA Global Institute.

Dr. Hashemi was previously the founding Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. While there, he was also Co-Director of the Religion and International Affairs certificate program, as well as the Political Theory Initiative.

His intellectual and research interests lie at the intersection of comparative politics and political theory, in particular debates on the global rise of authoritarianism, religion and democracy, secularism and its discontents, Middle East and Islamic politics, democratic and human rights struggles in non-Western societies and Islam-West relations.

He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies (Oxford University Press, 2009) and co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran鈥檚 Future (Melville House, 2011), The Syria Dilemma (MIT Press, 2013), Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East (Oxford University Press, 2017) and a four-volume study on Islam and Human Rights: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies (Routledge, 2023).

He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook on Islam and Secularism (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and his next book project focuses on explaining the global divide over Israel/Palestine.

He is frequently interviewed by PBS, NPR, CNN, CBC, Al Jazeera, Alternative Radio, Pacifica Radio and the BBC and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Al Jazeera Online, among other media outlets.

He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

Learn more about him .